User equipment, such as mobile terminals, frequently transmit data via an uplink to a network via a base station, such as a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB) or other access point. For example, machine-type communications (MTC) that are supported by user equipment may transmit data to a network via the uplink to a base station. The data to be transmitted via an uplink may vary depending upon the MTC application that is providing the data. For example, MTC applications may provide data to be transmitted via the uplink on a periodic basis or on a non-periodic basis. In this regard, MTC applications for metering, fleet management and civilian surveillance may periodically transmit data via an uplink. Conversely, MTC applications for earthquake and tsunami warning systems may transmit data via an uplink on a non-periodic basis. In addition, MTC applications may provide large packets of data or small packets of data to be transmitted via an uplink. In this regard, the majority of MTC applications may transmit relatively small data packets. However, some MTC applications, such as those for surveillance systems, may transmit larger data packets, particularly in instances in which the surveillance systems utilize high definition video.
MTC applications are not the only applications that provide data via an uplink to a base station. In this regard, user equipment may also receive data from background applications to be transmitted to a network via an uplink. In this regard, background applications are applications that provide data to be transmitted via the uplink without any user activity. The data provided by background applications may be intermittent, and the packets may be relatively small with a maximum size, for example, of about 200 bytes.
In a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system, the user equipment and a base station, such an eNB, communicate regarding data to be provided via the uplink utilizing a one-bit scheduling request (SR) and buffer status reports (BSR). In this regard, the SR may be transmitted via a control channel, such as the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the random access channel (RACH), while the BSR is transmitted on a data channel, such as the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), generally together with the data itself. The SR may be configured to have a period and one subframe offset. In this regard, the period of the SR may be 1 ms, 2 ms, 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms or 80 ms. As such, the user equipment, upon receipt of data to be transmitted via the uplink, such as from an MTC application or from a background application, would issue an SR to request the uplink resource for data transmission.
As a result of the variations in the timing with which data is received by the user equipment for transmission via the uplink and the variations in the size of the data to be transmitted via the uplink, the utilization of the uplink may not always be efficient. In this regard, the uplink may have a size that may sometimes be mismatched, such as by being bigger or smaller, than the size of the data to be transmitted via the uplink.